Friday Challenge: The Great Gatsby

I think it’s time we had another writing exercise this week – apologies for the lateness of posting. It’s been a busy week, culminating in a recording of Radio 4′s Saturday Review, which will go out tomorrow night (no surprise there). Our items this week included The Great Gatsby, which I saw at a morning screening this morning while nursing a mild hangover after the Fiction Uncovered party last night. I can solemnly announce that popcorn and diet Coke at 11am are disgusting, no matter how much you may like them in the evening. You’ll have to tune in tomorrow night if you want to know what I and the panel made of Baz’s latest but suffice to say, my considered opinion as a professional critic is that it had four legs and a tail.

The Fiction Uncovered party was great fun. Our eight winners all received hand-tooled versions of their novels, a Kobo and a six-month membership to the club where the bash took place, The Union on Greek Street in Soho. So, hardly the lottery-style win of the big literary prizes, but more importantly, they get promoted on the website and in the press – and that evening, Foyles on Charing Cross Road put up a window display of all eight titles. Being in a bookshop window may not sound like a huge deal but it’s actually very important for sales, apparently, and normally only happens when the publisher of the book pays for the privilege, which is why you usually only see big names behind the glass.

As I was Chair of Judges this year, I’ve arranged for a small prize for this week’s Friday Challenge – the winner will get a package with all eight titles. There really is something for everyone in there. (Possibly even Bay… although you can still do the challenge and say you don’t want the prize, you know). www.fictionuncovered.co.uk

So… in honour of F Scott Fitzgerald, currently being traduced in 3-D in multiplexes across the world, this week’s writing challenge is this: take the last line of The Great Gatsby, and turn it into the first line of your own short story. Maximum of 500 words, please (or thereabouts), but it’s up to you whether you continue the story in the style of the original, or whether you take it somewhere completely different.

‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past…’